Tomatoes

Someone at work brought in some homegrown Cherry Tomatoes… and they were yummy.

I wish I had grown some this year. I decided not to plant any, which was a mistake, because I miss having little Cherry Tomatoes to snack on when I’m in the garden.

Things I learnt:

– I have to plant them in the ground earlier.

– One thing I noticed this year was that the cutting from one of my tomato plants grew a lot bigger and healthier than the mother plant. I wonder if I should just plant one plant and take cuttings from it next year… hmmm?

– I won’t plant Great White Tomato next year, because I didn’t like it that much. I’ll concentrate on Brandywine, a cherry tomato and Roma.

It’s Hot…

Yesterday, I spent the day in San Francisco, celebrating my friend Wincy’s Birthday. We went to the West Portal district and had a Mexican lunch… Yumm!… Afterwards, we walked around the shops. I happened to see a hardware store that was selling a Coleus… so, knowing me I had to get it. Hello Coleus ‘Red Ruffles’.

Today, it was really warm, reaching the mid 90s (°F). Once it cooled down a bit, I fertilized with a water soluble fertilizer, spray almost all my plants. That was pretty much the extent of my gardening.

I did notice that the tomatoes are finally fruiting… and I saw my first tomato!!! YEAY!!! It’s a Great White Tomato that is about half an inch wide. The Cucumbers are also starting to flower. Below is the Sikkim Cucumber blossom.

My First Tomatoes

Sikkim Cucumber Blossom

While in the garden, I snacked on some of our yummy Italian Plum, which I think is my favorite fruit in the garden.

Yummy Italian Plum

Message Bean Emerges

Oh yeah, one of the Message Bean has emerged. The other one rotted :(

It was a Busy Gardening Day…

I took a half day off and left work a bit early. I just needed to take care of a lot of things, because I know I won’t have much time this weekend because of another Filipino Fiesta in San Francisco.

Before going home I stopped by Mid-City Nursery and got three plants.
– Coleus ‘Show & Tell?’ (I don’t think the sticker on the container was correct)
– Coleus ‘Burnt Sienna?’ (I’m not sure if the tag on this plant was correct)
– Heuchera ‘Amber Waves’

Coleus 'Show and Tell?'   Coleus 'Burnt Sienna?'

Heuchera ‘Amber Waves’ photo

Tomatoes and Eggplants Seedlings

Tomatoes and Eggplants Seedlings

My Tomatoes and Eggplants seedlings looks so puny compared to the ones I see at the nurseries.

Repottings…

I didn’t get home until about 7:45pm, but there was still a little bit of light outside, so I repotted some of my seedlings into one-gallon containers until I have my vegetable beds ready. I hope they will at least grow a bit bigger while I fix up the beds.

I repotted two each of the Burgundywine, Roma and Great White Tomatoes into their own pots… and two Scarlet Chinese Eggplant (4 total) into 2 one-gallon pots. I was also going to repot the Japanese Long Eggplants into their own pot, but I ran out, so I have to look for more and maybe do that tomorrow.

I also chopped down more of the Swiss Chard and cleared half of vegetable bed #1. By this time it was already dark and I was gardening by a citronella candle light.

I also noticed that we are not getting enough browns in our compost, so I need to shred some newspaper and use those as browns.

The End

Late Night Planting + Experimentation

Before going to bed, I got the urge to do some planting… so, I:

1. I repotted the 2 small pots of Great Quaking Ornamental Grass into larger pots.

2. I repotted the Zygocactus cutting which have sprouted new leaves/stems into a larger pot.

I’m still disappointed by the sad looking Tomato, Eggplant, etc. seedlings, so I thought I would try an experiment. I wondered how the tomatoes would do if I took cuttings of them.

I cut them down, dipped the bottom ends into rooting hormone and planted them into a half potting soil/half perlite mixture. About 2 inches of the stems were placed in the soil. I then watered and covered them with a cut up plastic water bottle to act as a mini greenhouse.

Sad Looking Tomato Seedlings (Before Cutting)   Sad Looking Tomato Seedlings (Cuttings)

Seedling Status…

Coleus ‘Amora?’ just sprouted.

The ‘Brandywine OTV’ and ‘Great White’ Tomato seedlings are about 3 inches tall and starting to show their third set of leaves.

The two Pine seedlings are fascinating and showing their second set of leaves.

More Seedlings…

Yesterday, I added an extension to the shelves in my room. The shelves I have are part of the IVAR storage system from Ikea. I’ve had them in my old apartment, and had to scale it down when I moved back home (I have a smaller room here). Luckily, I saved the extra side unit and shelves, and expanded my current setup. Now it looks huge, but at least I have room to setup my new grow lights.

Which reminds me… The ‘Brandywine OTV’ and ‘Great White’ Tomatoes have sprouted. I think the ‘William Guiness’ Columbine is sprouting too, but I can’t quite tell if it is or if it’s moldy. I also noticed that some pine nuts that I found and planted are emerging. Yeay!

And to top it off, the White Genoa Fig and Arguta Kiwi scions that I placed in cup of water are starting to bud.